Root Cause Analysis Metrics Can Improve Software Quality

More DevOps teams should be employing root cause analysis (RCA) to defects. The advantages are clear and indisputable. RCA metrics on defects can be leveraged to improve software quality by fixing the ineffective areas of the software development process such as requirements, design, code verification, unit testing, test planning, and QA testing. The result is drastic improvements in the overall quality of the software, and that means happy customers and lower development costs. Still not convinced? Let’s dig a little deeper.

What is RCA about? The methodology of RCA grew out of a need to identify the underlying factors that contributed to a system failure or an adverse event of some kind. Using the analogy of a plane crash, the RCA would pull in the black box data along with the plane’s designers, mechanics and pilots with experience flying that particular model. The aim would be to find the cause or causes of the crash and make the necessary changes to prevent it from happening again.